Silver Cloud

Bright sunlight

Cloud and sunlight

Slate grey water sparkles bright

Silver sunlight

Shines through grey cloud

Full of snow

Topped with blue and white

Joe Morriss

February 2012

Don't let them blow away

I walked out on a blowy day
I thought as I went along my way
At how the world is so full of people
Cars and houses too.
So many different clothes and faces
So many different colours and races

And then I felt a burden come
To know the meaning of this one
What am I, one man, to do
With so many souls
Just passing through?

So there I sat upon a bench
Until I thought my heart would wrench
I asked the Father to speak to me
What is my life supposed to be?

The the wind blew
Gusting strong
And all the leaves started racing along
They scurried and skipped
And danced and tripped

My thoughts were stirred
My gaze fixed upon
As if God had just
"where I blow....men follow along"
They have no choice but to live and then die,
To blow from here to where, and why?

In a lull, the wind abated
The rushing stopped, next gust awaited
A passer-by without asking why
Just stopped and picked up a tumbled leaf...
My heart skipped a beat
I leapt from my seat! 

Again the multitude raced by
And I quickly stopped one which caught my eye
Then I stumbled after the next
Gathering, laughing
Out of breath!

On and on they aimlessly raced
But I'd saved a few from an unknown place

To stop and hold these passing leaves
Brought great joy, at last, to me
I realised exactly what God would say
"These leaves are like souls...don't let them blow away".

Joe Morriss
2005

A Mother's touch

Beneath the morning grey she bends
Within her clasped hands coloured flowers
Whilst as the mourning grave she tends
And whiles away a lonely hour.

Her son, the grown man
No longer sees
What looking up she sees of him,
As sun falls through the autumn leaves
And the homely Robin sings his hymn.

A violet bunch of varied stems
Heather, Vetch and Tare
her aged fingers parting them
And placing each with care.

Each year remembered
This stony bed
A fragrant beauty feels
As life long ended rests its head
Where a mother's touch has healed.


Joe Morriss
October 5th 2014

Day Close

Day Close

Turn and face the sunset if you dare.

Don’t look for play of light in air

Or one day’s death to usher in another yet more fair.

Turn and see truth

Truth in all majesty

Unencumbered in strength

Strong over daily oppression – depression

Drawing and lifting besetting frustration

As cool of the evening

Lifts heat of the sunlight

And lulls in the coming

Of darkness the healer.

Turn, see a moment

Never repeated

Fixed in the day as the time of its parting.

Fixed in all time as this day’s departing

Returning no more.

Turn, see peace

The sun and the earth and you

Bound by peace, that companionship not of this world.

Trees wane and fade

The far hills stoop into nothingness

The grass lays back

Still tremor of cypress, awed at the spectacle.

The sun,

The sun pours down his molten end

In a hazy hush at the rim of the world.

The clouds in turmoiled glory

In a silent impassioned ecstasy

Lie near my face.

Evening cool soothing the brow

Chilling the back’s sweat

Hair lifting

With the spirit of that frozen, fervent flame.

Richard Morriss (Zimbabwe)

August 1961

The will to live

The Will to Live

Silently someone just learned to forgive,

While a man with a voice screamed "Die!"

My heart cries loudly "live, live, live!"

And my head turns away from the lie.

We're not all destined for fame abroad,

With stars in our hopeful eyes

But some will find their sweet reward

As the fire of this life dies.

Frustration turns its restless blade

With all its vain intent,

While in my breast the knowledge lays

Of what the master meant.

Charisma fueled by selfish pride

Is like its cousin fame

And only fools who trust in lies

Will fan the rampant flame.

But secret flows the whispering brook

Determined, to the sea.

And when my dreams like clouds have fled

My will returns to thee.

Joe Morriss

 22nd September 2014

Skin to Skin

"Skin to Skin"
Bonded from the beginning
Your first cry
Your mothers tears dried
My Son

Blood red
Angry Clashes
Angst and anguish
The door slams
You leave
We grieve

Yea tho I walk through the valley of shadow,
How I wish I had spared the rod
Your road is long and winding
My eyes are wet with crying

Skin to Skin
To hold you close again
Beyond the rugged cross
All will be alright

Joyful reunion
An open door
Ring and Robe
Firstborn of many brothers.

Come home tonight.

Joe Morriss

9th September 2014

Through the open window

The airplane drones sleepily overhead, and
With it you awake to the day.
Through the open window
Morning breathes her first breath
Silver brightness tinged with golden ray

See them playing in the garden
Hear their happy laughter as they pass
The same endless day, 
Year after year
When the lark sings
And you walk through the long meadow grass.

Moments like these are like a window
You can almost see through it to times gone by
Back to every summer you remember
Childhood at it's zenith
And framed in the window
The bright blue sky.

Joe Morriss

24th May 2010